Parental alcohol involvement and adolescent alcohol expectancies predict alcohol involvement in male adolescents.

Current models of adolescent drinking behavior hypothesize that alcohol expectancies mediate the effects of other proximal and distal risk factors. This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that the effects of parental alcohol involvement on their children's drinking behavior in mid-adolescence are mediated by the children's alcohol expectancies in early adolescence. A sample of 148 initially 9–11 year old boys and their parents from a high-risk population and a contrast group of community families completed measures of drinking behavior and alcohol expectancies over a 6-year interval. We analyzed data from middle childhood (M age = 10.4 years), early adolescence (M age = 13.5 years), and mid-adolescence (M age = 16.5 years). The sample was restricted only to adolescents who had begun to drink by mid-adolescence. Results from zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses showed that 1) maternal drinking during their children's middle childhood predicted number of drinking days in middle adolescence; 2) negative and positive alcohol expectancies in early adolescence predicted odds of any intoxication in middle adolescence; and 3) paternal alcoholism during their children's middle childhood and adolescents' alcohol expectancies in early adolescence predicted frequency of intoxication in middle adolescence. Contrary to predictions, child alcohol expectancies did not mediate the effects of parental alcohol involvement in this high-risk sample. Different aspects of parental alcohol involvement, along with early adolescent alcohol expectancies, independently predicted adolescent drinking behavior in middle adolescence. Alternative pathways for the influence of maternal and paternal alcohol involvement and implications for expectancy models of adolescent drinking behavior were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol outcome expectancies: Scale construction and predictive utility in higher order confirmatory models.

The goals of this research were to develop a scale to measure alcohol outcome expectancies that incorporated important features suggested by previous research; to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument, with particular attention to item discrimination; and to examine the relationship of positive and negative expectancy to self-reported alcohol use. In Study 1, a preliminary expectancy scale was constructed; factor analysis showed 2 general constructs representing positive and negative consequences of drinking. In Study 2, the scale was refined through tests of item discrimination and was used to predict alcohol use using structural equation modeling. Although negative expectancy was significantly related to alcohol use, positive expectancy was a stronger predictor. These results are consistent with earlier work that proposed a general positive–negative expectancy distinction and suggest that positive expectancy is a more powerful motivator of drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural comparison of alcohol expectancies in Puerto Rico and the United States.

This study compared the alcohol expectancies of 211 (62 men, 149 women) native Puerto Rican and 167 (54 men, 113 women) U.S. college students. Respondents completed a back-translated alcohol expectancy questionnaire. Results were factor analyzed separately by ethnicity. Comparison of factor structures indicated similarities and differences in expectancy structures. Puerto Rican respondents showed a tendency to associate positive aspects of alcohol effects with an expectancy for increased sociability, whereas for U.S. respondents these dimensions appeared to be independent. Puerto Ricans also had expectations of concurrent positive and negative alcohol effects on sexual behavior. A strong relationship between alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption patterns was observed in both samples. Positive expectancies were better predictors of drinking than negative expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking and drinking: Alcohol-related cognitions across stages of adolescent alcohol involvement.

Alcohol-related cognitions, particularly expectancies for drinking and nondrinking and motives for nondrinking, are involved in the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of alcohol use and are hypothesized to play key roles in adolescent decision making. This study explored (a) the relationships between alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives; (b) the roles of these cognitions across hypothesized developmental stages of adolescent alcohol use; and (c) the relationships between these cognitions and recent or intended future changes in drinking behavior in a cross-sectional sample. Surveys assessing alcohol use behaviors and attitudes were administered to 1,648 high school students. Heavier drinkers reported more positive alcohol use expectancies and fewer nondrinking motives than did lighter drinkers or nondrinkers; however, nondrinking expectancies only differed between nondrinkers and rare drinkers and all subsequent drinking classes. Alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives differentiated students who recently initiated alcohol from those who had not, while nondrinking expectancies and nondrinking motives differentiated binge-drinking students who had made recent efforts to reduce/stop their drinking from those who had not. Intentions to initiate or reduce drinking in the coming month were also associated with these alcohol-related cognitions. Drinking and nondrinking expectancies and motives for not drinking may play critical roles in decisions to alter alcohol-use behavior during adolescence. Future exploration of temporal relationships between changes in alcohol-related cognitions and behavioral decision making will be useful in the refinement of effective prevention and intervention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential item functioning in the Danish translation of the SF-36

Statistical analyses of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) can be used for rigorous translation evaluations. DIF techniques test whether each item functions in the same way, irrespective of the country, language, or culture of the respondents. For a given level of health, the score on any item should be independent of nationality. This requirement can be tested through contingency-table methods, which are efficient for analyzing all types of items. We investigated DIF in the Danish translation of the SF-36 Health Survey, using two general population samples (USA, n = 1,506; Denmark, n = 3,950). DIF was identified for 12 out of 35 items. These results agreed with independent ratings of translation quality, but the statistical techniques were more sensitive. When included in scales, the items exhibiting DIF had only a little impact on conclusions about cross-national differences in health in the general population. However, if used as single items, the DIF items could seriously bias results from cross-national comparisons. Also, the DIF items might have larger impact on cross-national comparison of groups with poorer health status. We conclude that analysis of DIF is useful for evaluating questionnaire translations.     

Elementary School Drinking: The Role of Temperament and Learning.

Drinking in elementary school, despite its low base rate, has been shown to predict alcohol use in middle school (Wilson, Battistich, Syme, & Boyce, 2002), which in turn predicts alcohol abuse or dependence in young adults (Guo, Collins, Hill, & Hawkins, 2000). The authors report 1 of the 1st examinations of the relationship between personality and psychosocial learning risk factors and drinking behavior among elementary school students. Fifth-grade students completed measures of disinhibition, positive and negative alcohol expectancies, and drinking. MIMIC modeling, tests of mediation, and tests of moderation were completed to test these relations. It was found that disinhibition and positive alcohol expectancies were each related to drinking in 5th graders. Disinhibition moderated the relation between positive alcohol expectancies and drinking in some cases. Mediation was not supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences on negative affectivity: an IRT study of differential item functioning on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Stress Reaction Scale

Item response theory methods were used to study differential item functioning (DIF) between gender groups on a measure of stress reaction. Results revealed that women were more likely to endorse items describing emotional vulnerability and sensitivity, whereas men were more likely to endorse items describing tension, irritability, and being easily upset. Item factor analysis yielded 5 correlated factors, and the DIF analysis, in turn, revealed differential gender mean differences on these factors. This finding illustrates how even in an essentially unidimensional scale, comparison of group mean differences can be affected by multidimensionality caused by item clusters that share similar content. Results do not support arguments that measures of negative affective dispositions "artificially" produce gender mean differences by focusing on specific selected content areas.     

Differential item functioning: Implications for test translations.

Statistical methods based on item response theory (IRT) were used to bidirectionally evaluate the measurement equivalence of translated American and German intelligence tests. Items that displayed differential item functioning (DIF) were identified, and content analysis was used to determine probable sources, of DIF, either cultural or linguistic. The benefits of using an IRT analysis in examining the fidelity of translated tests are described. In addition, the influence of cultural differences on test translations and the use of DIF items to elucidate cultural differences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative affect combines with smoking outcome expectancies to predict smoking behavior over time.

The present study examined whether the tendency to experience negative affective states combines with smoking outcome expectancies to predict smoking behavior over time. Participants were 121 young adults and resource people recruited from 3 alcohol and drug treatment programs and through community advertisements. Each participant completed 3 interviews over a 4-year period. Results indicated that dispositional negative affect and positive smoking expectancies were significantly correlated with smoking behavior both within and across time. Expectations of positive and negative reinforcement partially mediated negative affect's relation with smoking across time. Positive expectancies did not function as a moderator of negative affect's relation with smoking behavior. These results represent an important step in incorporating smoking outcome expectancies into multivariate models of smoking risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal validation of the acquired preparedness model of drinking risk.

This paper reports on the first longitudinal test of the Acquired Preparedness (AP) model of alcoholism risk, which holds that individual differences in key personality traits influence drinking behavior by influencing alcohol-related learning (Smith and Anderson, 2001). We studied 418 individuals making the transition to the independence of college across 3 longitudinal waves. Each of 2 longitudinal models predicting typical drinking quantity provided support for the AP process. In the first, drinking quantity at the end of the first year of college was predicted by positive urgency (the tendency to act rashly when experiencing extremely positive affect) at the start of college, and that predictive relationship appeared to have been mediated by expectancies that alcohol provides positive, arousing effects. In the second, drinking quantity was predicted by negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly when experiencing extremely negative affect) at the start of college, and that relationship appeared to have been mediated by the motive to drink alcohol to cope with subjective distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol expectancies as a mediator of the relationship between injury and readiness to change drinking behavior.

There is a well-established relationship between alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior. The purpose of the present study was to extend the literature by examining the role of alcohol expectancies in determining readiness to change drinking behavior among injured emergency department patients who screened positive for hazardous drinking. Negative expectancies were found to partially mediate the relationships of alcohol-related injuries and injury aversiveness to readiness to change drinking behavior. Results suggest that negative alcohol expectancies are a potential means of increasing patients' readiness to change drinking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Distress by Eating or Drinking: Role of Trait Urgency and Expectancies.

The authors propose that trait urgency (the tendency to act rashly when distressed) is a risk factor for both alcohol abuse and bulimic symptoms, that disorder-specific expectancies influence whether one engages in one behavior or the other, and that expectancies moderate urgency's influence on those behaviors. Cross-sectional findings were consistent with the model. Problems from alcohol use were comorbid with binge eating and purging. Trait urgency was associated with both behaviors. Alcohol expectancies were associated with drinking levels and with problem drinking, but not with eating. Eating expectancies were associated with binge eating, but not with alcohol use or problems. Urgency's effect on binge eating was moderated by expectancies, but its effect on alcohol use and problem drinking was not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health risk behaviors of adolescent and young adult siblings.

The present study tested the effects of older siblings' outcome expectancies, health risk behaviors, and consequences on the behavior and health-related expectancies of their younger adolescent siblings. Data were analyzed for 140 matched pairs of younger (n?=?147) and older (n?=?195) siblings. Younger siblings' alcohol use and expectancies were significantly associated with perceptions of their older siblings' drinking. Younger siblings' positive expectancies for other health risk behaviors (e.g., sex without a condom) were associated with their perceptions about the positive consequences their older sibling had experienced and with their older siblings' positive expectancies. These results suggest that vicarious learning from an older sibling is one mechanism through which adolescents form expectancies about health risk behaviors. Prevention strategies are discussed that focus on expectancies and older sibling influence on adolescent involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating biological and behavioral factors in alcohol use risk: The role of ALDH2 status and alcohol expectancies in a sample of Asian Americans.

Prior studies have shown that the ALDH2*2 genetic variant, most common in individuals of Asian descent, is related to heightened sensitivity to alcohol and can serve as a protective factor against alcohol problems. This study explored the effect of this factor on alcohol expectancies. It was hypothesized that (a) individuals with ALDH2*2 alleles would have lower positive expectancies and higher negative expectancies, (b) expectancies would mediate the ALDH2-drinking relation, and (c) ALDH2 status would moderate the expectancy-drinking relation. Data were collected from 171 Asian American university students. Positive expectancy and ALDH2 status were correlated with alcohol use. Mediation and moderation hypotheses were supported only in the female sample. Results were not significant for negative expectancies. These results indicate that ALDH2 status may protect against drinking by lowering positive expectancies and reducing the expectancy-drinking relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of alcohol expectancies in memory in relation to limb of the blood alcohol curve.

Attempts to understand the mechanism by which alcohol expectancies might influence drinking have related activation of expectancies in memory to alcohol use. Limb of the blood alcohol curve, however, has not been considered. In the present study, 527 undergraduates completed the Anticipated Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale and a drinking measure. Multidimensional scaling was used to map expectancies into memory network format, and likely activation of expectancies was empirically modeled. Heavier drinkers were most likely to activate positive and arousing expectancies associated with the ascending limb, whereas lighter drinkers were most likely to activate negative and sedating expectancies associated with the descending limb. These findings add to the literature suggesting that activation of expectancies in memory may be an important determinant of drinking behavior and a promising target for intervention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genes, environment and individual differences in alcohol expectancies among female adolescents and young adults.

Alcohol expectancies are an important proximal causal risk factor in several models of the familial transmission of alcohol use, abuse, and dependence, yet the familial transmission of alcohol expectancies is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the familial transmission of positive alcohol expectancies. Participants were 2,627 14- to 22-year-old female twins. Experiences shared by twins, rather than genetic factors, explained most of the familial similarity for positive alcohol expectancies, but an even larger proportion of the variation in positive alcohol expectancies was explained by nonfamilial factors. The extent to which the familial similarity for positive alcohol expectancies was moderated by age, race, drinking status, and the sharing of peer groups was also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In search of the seven dwarves: Issues of measurement and meaning in alcohol expectancy research.

Discusses substantive issues in predicting drinking patterns from expectancies, as well as issues of content and measurement of the scales developed to measure these expectancies. In recent years, much research has suggested that alcohol expectancies—or the beliefs that individuals hold about the effects of alcohol on their behavior, moods, and emotions—are an important factor in motivating drinking behavior. Although measures of these expectancies have consistently been shown to be correlated with measures of alcohol use, conceptual and methodological problems remain to be addressed. In order to progress in understanding this potentially important psychosocial factor in abusive and nonabusive drinking, alcohol expectancy research, which has been atheoretical in nature, should attend to potential contributions from other areas of research in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

ALDH2, ADH1B and alcohol expectancies: Integrating genetic and learning perspectives.

The present study evaluated associations of ALDH2 and ADH1B genotypes with alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior in a sample of Asian American young adults. In addition to assessing global alcohol expectancies, the authors developed a measure of physiological expectancies to evaluate an expectancy phenotype specific to the mechanism by which ALDH2 and ADH1B variations presumably influence drinking behavior. Compared with individuals with the ALDH2*1/*1 genotype, those with the ALDH2*2 allele reported greater negative alcohol expectancies, greater expectancies for physiological effects of alcohol and lower rates of alcohol use. ADH1B was not associated with alcohol expectancies or drinking behavior. Hierarchical models showed that demographic factors, ALDH2 genotype, and expectancy variables explained unique variance in drinking outcomes. Mediation tests showed significant indirect effects of ALDH2 on drinking frequency and peak lifetime consumption through expectancies. These results provide support for influences of genetic factors and alcohol sensitivity on alcohol-related learning and suggest the importance of developing biopsychosocial models of drinking behavior in Asian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent alcohol expectancies in relation to personal and parental drinking patterns.

Increased expectations of positive effects of alcohol have been associated with severity of drinking across a variety of abusing and nonabusing adult populations. Although alcohol expectancies have been examined among high school adolescents, no study has examined expectancies of identified adolescent abusers in treatment. This study investigated whether adolescent alcohol abusers in treatment expect significantly more reinforcement from alcohol than do nonabusing peers and whether expectancies vary as a function of exposure to parental alcohol abuse. The adolescent version of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (Christiansen, Goldman, & Inn, 1982) was completed by 116 abusing and nonabusing adolescents. Results indicate that adolescent alcohol abusers expect significantly more reinforcement from alcohol than do demographically comparable nonabusing peers. Adolescents with an alcohol-abusing parent reported expecting more cognitive and motor enhancement from drinking than did adolescents without a family history of abuse. Thus, both personal alcohol use and parental alcohol use are related to adolescent alcohol expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluations and expectancies of alcohol and marijuana problems among college students.

Two studies examined the associations between evaluations (good-bad) and expected likelihood (likely-unlikely) of alcohol- and marijuana-related problems and hazardous consumption and problems among college students. Participants provided data on alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and expectancies and evaluations of alcohol problems; marijuana use indices, marijuana-related problems, marijuana effect expectancies, and likelihood and evaluations of marijuana problems. Evaluations of alcohol problems were positively related to the number of binge drinking occasions and alcohol-related problems. The interaction between evaluations and expectancies was significant in predicting the number of binge drinking occasions. Expectancies demonstrated a curvilinear relationship with binge drinking and alcohol-related problems. Marijuana users evaluated marijuana-related problems as less negative and less likely to occur than did nonusers. Expectancies, but not evaluations, of negative consequences were significantly associated with marijuana use intensity. Expectancies of problems demonstrated a curvilinear relationship with marijuana-use intensity and marijuana problems. Men evaluated alcohol and marijuana problems less negatively than did women. In summary, the expected likelihood of alcohol-marijuana problems and the evaluation of such problems represent a vulnerability factor associated with increased liability for hazardous alcohol and marijuana use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)